The Muslim Safety Forum (MSF) is one of the groups reported to have influenced the Chief of the Metropolitan Police's decision to scale down police stop and seach powers. This comes two months after revelations that the founding chairman of the MSF and, according to the most recent reports, its current treasurer, Azad Ali, held extremist Islamist views and praised one of the godfathers of modern jihad, Abdullah Azzam.
On Azzam, Ali wrote on his blog that he was one of "few Muslims who promote the understanding of the term jihad in its comprehensive glory". Abdullah Azzam was a mentor of Osama bin Laden and introduced him to the ideology of radical Islam when they met during the Afghan jihad against the Soviets. Ali's praise of Azzam's definition of jihad is startling as in one of his books, Join the Caravan, Azzam defined jihad purely in miliatary terms and rejected the notion that it referred to a peaceful, 'inner struggle':
Other current members of the MSF include the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), whose leading members have recently refused to denounce the actions of the group's deputy director-general, Daud Abdullah, who signed a statement in support of an ongoing jihad against Israel.
The word 'jihad' refers exclusively to armed combat, as Ibn Rushd said. The four imams agreed upon this...All the evidence on Mr. Ali points to a man who believes that moderate Muslims who reject jihad are neglecting their basic duty as Muslims, and he is certainly not someone who should have any influence over police decision making, especially regarding anti-terror measures.
...The sentence "we returned from the lesser jihad (battle) to the greater jihad (jihad of the soul)", which some cite as if it were a hadith, is a forgery and baseless.
Other current members of the MSF include the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), whose leading members have recently refused to denounce the actions of the group's deputy director-general, Daud Abdullah, who signed a statement in support of an ongoing jihad against Israel.
